The present invention relates in general to a holding device for use in fabricating orthodontic appliances and, in particular, to a device having an upper dental casting holding arm which is mounted for vertical movement toward and away from a lower dental casting holding arm.
Several types of orthodontic holding devices have been proposed to provide selective vertical movement between an upper dental casting and a lower dental casting. One such device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,059,336 to Windish. The device in the Windish patent comprises a horizontally extending upper arm which is adapted for vertical movement toward and away from a horizontally extending lower arm. A pair of spaced apart parallel guide pins extend upwardly from the lower arm and are adapted to be inserted within corresponding guide holes provided in an upper block attached to the upper arm. A locking screw is carried by the upper block and is utilized to frictionally engage one of the guide pins for maintaining the upper arm in a selected vertical position relative to the lower arm.
Another type of orthodontic holding device is manufactured by Knochen Dental. The Knochen device includes a horizontally extending lower arm having an upwardly extending guide member at one end thereof. The guide member is perpendicular to the lower arm and has a generally rectangular cross section. A horizontally extending upper arm is attached to a mounting device having a rectangular slot formed therein for slidably receiving the upstanding guide member. A locking screw is provided in the mounting device for frictionally engaging the guide member for locking the upper arm in a fixed vertical position relative to the lower arm. Also, a reference stop means is positioned on the guide member and is used to limit the minimum vertical spacing between the upper and lower arms.
Other types of orthodontic holding devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,930,127 and 3,758,096.